The emerald green snail, green tree snail, or Manus green tree snail, scientific name ''Papustyla pulcherrima'', sometimes listed as ''Papuina pulcherrima'', is a species of large, air-breathing tree snail, a terrestrial

pulmonate Pulmonata or pulmonates is an informal group (previously an order, and before that, a subclass) of snails and slugs characterized by the ability to breathe air, by virtue of having a pallial lung instead of a gill, or gills. The group inclu ...

gastropod Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and fro ...

mollusk Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The ...

in the family

Camaenidae Camaenidae is a Family (biology), family of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial molluscs, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the superfamily Helicoidea, the typical snails and their allies. This is one of the most diverse families i ...

. MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Papustyla pulcherrima (I. Rensch, 1931). Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=1301562 on 2021-06-08 The shells of this species were in demand for making jewelry, and were popular with shell collectors and, partly as a result of this, the species is now near being threatened.

Distribution and habitat

''P. pulcherrima'' is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Manus Island Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest of the Admiralty Islands. It is the fifth-largest island in Papua New Guinea, with an area of , measuring around . Manus Island is covered in rugged jungles w ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

. This snail lives in trees, and inhabits

rain forest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

areas up to above sea level.

Description

The shell of this species is a vivid green color, which is unusual in snails. The green color is however not within the solid,

calcium carbonate Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is a common substance found in Rock (geology), rocks as the minerals calcite and aragonite, most notably in chalk and limestone, eggshells, gastropod shells, shellfish skel ...

part of the shell but instead it is a very thin protein layer known as the

periostracum The periostracum ( ) is a thin, organic coating (or "skin") that is the outermost layer of the shell of many shelled animals, including molluscs and brachiopods. Among molluscs, it is primarily seen in snails and clams, i.e. in gastropods an ...

. Under the periostracum the shell is yellow.

Endangered

Overharvesting Overexploitation, also called overharvesting or ecological overshoot, refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns. Continued overexploitation can lead to the destruction of the resource, as it will be unable to ...

of the species for commercial purposes led to a decline in the population of this snail.

Logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, trucks
The snail and its shell are protected under

CITES CITES (shorter acronym for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of inte ...

(Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and the species is listed in the IUCN Red List as near threatened as of 2015. ''Papustyla pulcherrima'' is the only foreign gastropod species that is listed as Federally Endangered in the United States since 2 June 1970. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (Last updated 5 January 2010)
Species Profile for Manus Island Tree snail (''Papustyla pulcherrima'')."
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service website. Accessed 6 January 2010.

References

* Rensch, I. (1931). Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Schneckenfauna der Admiralitätsinseln. Zoologischer Anzeiger. 95(5): 186-194.

External links

Clench, W. J.; Turner, R. D. (1963 ["1962"
. Monographs of the Genera Papustyla, Forcartia and Meliobba (Papuininae: Camaenidae). Journal of the Malacological Society of Australia. 1(6): 3-33] Camaenidae Molluscs of Papua New Guinea Endemic fauna of Papua New Guinea Gastropods described in 1931 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Camaenidae-stub